Eating on a budget and turning one meal into two can be delicious!
Last night we had sriracha-glazed salmon for dinner that I baked in the oven. (#SalmonSunday) We ended up with about 7 ounces leftover, so I put it in a baggie in the fridge for salmon cakes for tonight! I use a similar recipe to my grans tuna cakes and they are simple, crispy and delicious!
Update! I just made these In my Instant pot air fried using my new Mealthy CrispLid! This thing is awesome! It took about five minutes per side. It didn’t even heat the kitchen up like the oven does!
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Quick & Easy 4 Ingredient Salmon Cakes
Cooking meals on a budget and turning one meal into two can be delicious, fast and easy! These four-ingredient salmon cakes will make weeknight cooking a breeze!Preheat oven to 425° or prepare your air-fryer basket.
You will need a cookie sheet, some cooking oil spray, and a lightly greased baking/cooling rack.
You will need a cookie sheet, some cooking oil spray, and a lightly greased baking/cooling rack.
Ingredients
For the Salmon Cakes
- 7 ounces Salmon – cooked Leftover
- 1 egg (Don't have an egg? Substitute 2-3 heaping tbsp mayo instead!)
- 12 Ritz or Club (stack sized) crackers (Add one or two more if it’s too wet)
- 1/3 cup Panko Seasoned with salt & pepper, or Weber Garlic Sriracha seasoning is great for a little spice!
Optional Dipping Sauce
- 1/4 cup Greek yogurt I really like Greek Gods plain yogurt!
- 1/2 tsp Lemon zest
- 2 tbsp Lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp Sriracha (Optional)
Instructions
For the Salmon Cakes
- Crack the egg into a medium bowl and whisk with a fork
- Use your hands to break up the leftover salmon into flakes and add to the bowl
- Stir together gently with a fork until you can make a small ball in the palm of your hand. Don’t over stir it still want to see some flakes! Set mixture aside.
- Shape the salmon mixture into about five, even palm-size balls and set aside.
- Add a third a cup of Panko bread crumbs to a plate and season with salt and pepper. (Add some dried parsley or garlic powder if you want!)
- One at a time, flatten a ball gently into the Panko breadcrumbs. Gently flip it over and press it into the panko on the other side, to coat both sides.
- Since this is a loose, flaky mixture, it will try to fall apart on you. Turn it on its side and roll it into a hockey puck shape to coat all around the edges. You will probably need both hands to do this. Once it looks like a panko-coated hockey puck, lightly spray it with cooking oil and set it on the greased baking rack.
- Gently spray the other side with cooking oil. This will help brown and crisp the salmon cakes.
- Place the salmon cakes and rack on top of the cookie sheet and bake about seven minutes, or until slightly browned on top.*Or place in your oiled air-fryer basket gently and not touching and air-fry at 400 until browned on top.
- Flip cakes gently and place back into the oven for another seven minutes. Remove salmon cakes from oven when they are lightly browned on both sides. When you press lightly with a finger, they should not be squishy.*or flip and air-fry a few minutes on 425 just until browned slightly. All we need to do here is cook the egg through since the salmon has already been cooked! Once they are cooked through, remove from the oven. They can be served plain, or squeeze fresh lemon over the top! You can also put them in a burger bun and make a salmon burger!
For Optional Dipping Sauce
- Spoon 1/4 cup greek yogurt (or mayonnaise) into a small bowl.
- Zest one lemon, and add a pinch of zest to the bowl. (Reserve the rest of the zest, we only need a pinch. I keep mine in zipper bags in the freezer to use as flavor bombs in other recipes.)
- Cut lemon in half and squeeze about two tablespoons into the bowl.
- Add a small squeeze of sriracha, about 1/2 tsp depending on how spicy you like your food! Stir and taste, it may need a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
Notes
Pictured are “oven-fried” instead of pan-fried. We just can’t afford the calories or the fat to pan fry. The panko and buttery crackers make up for it though. Feel free to pan fry! They are equally as delicious! They are amazing in an air-fryer too!
If you have more or less leftover salmon, it’s pretty easy to modify the recipe. Just add more or less crushed crackers!
We love these quick, four-ingredient leftover salmon cakes with spicy sriracha lemon yogurt dipping sauce.
This recipe is adapted from my Granny, Evelyn’s tuna cake recipe. My Gran is 99 years old and hasn’t cooked in a long time. One of my fondest memories of dinner at Granny’s is of watching her make her Tuna Cakes. Having lived through the depression, my Gran had to learn to use what she had to feed her family. She could turn a simple can of tuna into a family meal! Of course, she would shallow fry her patties to a golden crisp! I promise to post her tuna cake recipe soon. It’s a little different. They were denser than when I make them but equally delicious!
Nutrition
Serving: 4ozCalories: 318kcalCarbohydrates: 20gProtein: 27gFat: 13gSaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 137mgSodium: 347mgPotassium: 592mgSugar: 3gVitamin A: 160IUVitamin C: 7.3mgCalcium: 98mgIron: 2.5mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
How does this recipe measure up to your go-to salmon cake recipe? Have you tried making them in an air fryer? To rate this recipe, please click on the stars at the top of the recipe!
This looks yummy